Bank litigators under fire

Bank litigators under fire

JAKARTA (JP): More members of the House of Representatives and
bank analyst have joined the fray of criticisms against
Indonesian bank creditors, who seemingly distrust the country's
commercial court and prefer settling business disputes at the
court in Singapore.

Abu Hasan Sazili of the Golkar faction who is vice chairman of
Commission I (law and defense) lambasted at creditor plaintiffs
who do business in the country but do not have any trust in its
judicial system.

Another House member, Jhon Manafe of the Commission VIII
(finance) concurred, saying that creditors such as the Bank Bali
group should not a priori discard the country's commercial court
as unreliable.

They were commenting to Antara on the civil law suit filed
recently by Bali International Finance, a unit of Bank Bali in
Jakarta, at the high court in Singapore, against PT Surya
Supratama Finance and Bambang Sutrisno, a former shareholder of
the now defunct Bank Surya.

Sutrisno guaranteed a syndicated loan to PT Surya Supratama
Finance in 1997 which was lead managed by Bali International. The
litigation was triggered by Surya Supratama's failure to repay
the loan on maturity.

Jhon said this was the second law suit filed by the Bank Bali
group at the Singapore court against its Indonesian debtors.

Bank analyst I Nyoman Moena agreed that Indonesian creditors
and debtors should bring up their disputes to the Jakarta
commercial court but he also asked the judges running the court
to make self-introspection as to why many creditors prefer the
judicial system in Singapore.